blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

After more than 24 hours without internet, and much work on the part of Ezi throughout, we went online and received our green passports.  Theoretically this will allow us to go to concerts, museums, and who knows what – once they open.  But in actuality we have no idea if the vaccine works on Ezi, who is full of ritoximab that lowers resistance, and if it works on the new mutations.   So, theoretically, we are in a better place.  But, practically, nothing has changed.

At this moment, I’m actually much happier that Ezi managed to get new equipment and reconnect our internet.  I might have had to start to clean and cook had not my distraction returned.

january 26, 2021 – green passport Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv,

When i first started reading about the fact that we haven’t shared our vaccines with Palestinians, I thought it was understandable that we would take care of one population after another.  Now I’m beginning to wonder.  It would not only be legal but also the moral imperative to share with people for whom we have claimed responsibility, even though Abu Mazen has taken responsibility for getting the Sputnik vaccine to the west bank.   

There was also another reason that occurred to me this morning as we were walking around our neighborhood.  I watch the houses going up and realize that at least in one of them the builders are not from here.  I may not know Arabic well, but I seem to be able to distinguish different dialects and the one I heard today is not from any place I’ve been to in the past forty years.

  

january 25, 2021 – why we have to vaccinate palestinians Read Post »

israeli politics

Our internet stopped working after weeks of blinking on and off.  Ezi has been working on this for a few days but now he’s stumped.  It happens that I, like almost everyone else in lockdown, have become addicted.  almost all my reading is online, almost everything I do is online.  And now it’s gone.  How will I check the latest side-effect of the vaccine?  How will I see who likes my poems?  How will I live…

january 25, 2021 – internet issues Read Post »

blog, israeli politics, my life in tel aviv, poetry, , , ,

The New York Times inspired me to finally write about this

when I saw the inauguration last week I kept myself from crying – the way poetry was part of the message of models of faith for the future.  Models FOR faith, not in faith.  HOW to believe in the future and how to be the kind of people that could make it happen.  

The poetry itself seemed more spoken word than poetry to me, but Amanda Gorman did an amazing job in fulfilling the hope that we can change our lives, the direction of our politics.  And Biden’s reinforcement of that kind of belief in his quotation from Heaney’s poetry, something that was characteristic of empathic presidents before him – from Kennedy to Clinton to Biden, made me believe. 

And it made me see the contrasts between our leadership in Israel and the hope for the future in the U.S. government.   When Shimon Peres would quote a line from poetry, you knew he read the poem and chose it himself.  When Bibi – or any of the other politicians in the country – quote a poem, you know they’ve had some speechwriter who had combed the web for famous sayings…  

Thanks to Linda Streit for pointing out this op-ed to me

Please let us hear more encouraging words that shape and enable a better society in the future.

january 24, 2021 – politics and poetry Read Post »

israeli politics

Just to keep myself away from other people I started putting some stories online.  i’ll make it prettier soon, but in the meantime click here

we’re all going crazy here – the prospect of maybe getting out soon is almost as maddening as the fear of not getting a vaccine.  But enough complaining.  there really is enough to do at home.

But I would have liked to join the protest in front of the Prime Minister’s home – the 31 st straight week.  The fact that I’m staying home seems to have stopped all my activity except for some zooms.  

 

january 23, 2021 – stories Read Post »

israeli politics

Since everyone has been writing to me about how wonderful the inauguration was, and some even praised all the Jewish elements in it, I have to put in my two cents  Let me begin with Leonard Cohen’s Halleluja.  Recently Rolling Stone Magazine published an article about the text and how Cohen was including holiness into every aspect of life.  It was a good analysis and may even have shown how someone introduced an element into the ceremony that way beyond the intention.  First off, that art isn’t all that mysterious – but just a measure of putting the right things together.  Secondly, that being a king puts a human being in danger of being greedy and hurting his people.  Third, that only when you’ve been betrayed by a woman and are totally demeaned do you say Halleluja. And fourth, that everything is worthy of rejoicing, whether the divine exists or not.  So even though the phrase Halleluja in Hebrew means “Praise the Lord,” it doesn’t matter what you’re praising.  It’s like what my Rebbe told me when I asked him in the middle of a lession if we’re doing all this work and there’s no God, he thought a while and then said, “Whether there is a God or not, a Jew has to study Torah.”

january 21, 2021 – halleluja Read Post »

israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

First thing in the morning we will be getting our second vaccine.  Because I seem to react to everything with force, I’m not planning any activity.  But I will be glued to CNN and FOX, my eyes on the football bags. 

Israeli politics is much less dramatic.  We were not even told that all our info has been shared with Pfizer. If the whole debate in the US in recent years has been about the right to privacy, we aren’t in the discussion.  

january 19, 2021 – tomorrow – inauguration Read Post »

israeli politics

the only shop I’ve been in for almost a year is the butcher shop (It’s probably not true – we bought some chairs last summer as I recall).  But anyway I needed some bread – and although I usually just order everything from the supermarket, we had to get money from the cash machine and the bakery was next door.  But it has been so long, I couldn’t figure out how to order the bread, and I wound up asking the guy behind the counter to choose what kind and then where I should pay.  I can’t believe how difficult it was for me to maneuver a simple purchase.  But maybe I’ve just got my UTI back again.

The bread, by the way, was pretty indifferent.  And sliced too thin.  And cost too much.

january 17, 2021 – bread Read Post »